The greatest tool we have for solving problems lives between our ears.

Understanding how our thoughts affect our actions can help us learn to lead and follow with more impact and contribute to the central mission of our groups. It allows us to fully bring ourselves to our roles in a way that is grounded, authentic and vulnerable. It also makes work/life way more fun.

Evolutionary psychology posits that pessimism developed as a mechanism to keep monkeys safe. Optimism developed later in our evolution as a mechanism to allow risk taking behaviour that benefited the group. The hypothesis is that because group membership is vital for the survival of an individual, our pessimist mechanism to remain safe becomes active when we think about whether we belong in a group.

The work we do together in this workshop helps develop a ‘reflection-in-action’ mindset that allows each of us to perform at our best. We think of this work like the mindset training athletes undergo to ensure that their thinking supports optimal performance.

After this session, you’ll be able to visualise your doubt monster as they are today. As with all life experience, they do change over time. You can choose to keep your drawing, or try drawing it again any time you want to refresh your relationship with your doubt monster.